The Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology known as “Wi-Fi” has been standardized by IEEE in the 802.11 series of specifications (i.e., as “IEEE Standard for Information technology—Telecommunications and information exchange between systems. Local and metropolitan area networks—Specific requirements. Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications”). As currently specified, Wi-Fi systems are primarily operated in the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz bands. However, many other frequency bands are available. Despite the fact that sufficient wireless spectrum may be available, the fragmentation of the spectrum into sections available from different frequency bands typically limits the current user devices to operate in a single section at any given time.
Multi-band capable user devices exist, that is, devices which support multiple radio frequency bands. They may be used to support roaming between different access points that use different frequency bands.
When a device moves from the coverage area of one WLAN access point to the coverage area of another WLAN access point, the connection with the first access point breaks as the device moves out of range, and the device then begins to search for a new connection. This has the disadvantage that the device has a discontinuous connection.